No project on chili con carne would be complete with out a recipe from a guy from Texas named Bubba. This wonderful recipe requires 3 hours cooking time and a bit of Texas magic!

Ingredients

Instructions

Brown the meat in a large pan on medium heat. Add the beef broth and tomato sauce, stir lightly and cover with the lid. When the mixture has started to reach a light boil, add the California Fancy or other hot chili powder, oregano, cayenne pepper, onion powder, white pepper, tomato sauce, New Mexico Light, MSG (if desired), paprika, and garlic powder and cook for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender. If the meat is tender before 2 hours, turn off the burner and let the pot rest.

One hour before serving time, reheat the chili on low heat, and add the cumin, onion powder, beef bouillon granules, Goya Sazon, chili powder of your choice, black pepper, garlic powder, jalapeño powder, chicken bouillon granules, and tomato sauce. Stir the chili well and add water if the mixture is too thick.

About 15 minutes before serving, add the cumin, garlic powder, chili powder of choice, onion powder and cayenne. Just before serving, add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

This chili is from the C.I.A.—the Culinary Institute of America, where Chef Jim Heywood teaches. He competed in fifteen chili cook-offs in 1992. “I&rquo;ve won a few along the way,” he notes, “including the Connecticut State Championship in 1988 and the New Hampshire State Championship in 1991. Jim is also one of the star guest chefs at the National Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Shows in Albuquerque.

Ingredients

• 5 pounds lean beef (chuck or round), diced in ½-inch pieces

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1.5 pounds onions, diced

• 6 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 cups dark beer

• 2 cups beef broth

• 1 6-ounce can tomato paste

• 1.5 cups diced New Mexican green chiles that have been roasted and peeled

• 2 to 3 jalapeños, stems and seeds removed, minced very fine

• 3/4 cup chili powder

• 3 tablespoons freshly ground cumin seed

• 1.5 tablespoons dried oregano

• Salt and pepper to taste

Lean Beef, Dark Beer, Tomato Paste, New Mexican Green Chile, Jalapeno, Cumin, Chili Powder

Instructions

In a large pot, brown the beef in the oil. Remove and reserve the beef, leaving the oil in the pan.

Saute the onions and the garlic in the remaining oil until soft. Add the beer, reserved beef, and tomato paste and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring frequently.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for another hour, stirring frequently.

Here is Sam’s recipe for good ol’ café chili. Note the extreme amount of cumin. Interestingly enough, in the version of this recipe which appeared in Texas Home Cooking, the amount of cumin mysteriously was doubled. Could Sam be addicted to cumin? Sam is also the author of Avenida Juarez, a novel which has to be read to be believed.

Ingredients

The recipe is in Sam’s words, unedited.

• 1 pound fatty bacon

• 2 pounds coarse beef, extra large grind

• ½ cup whole cominos (cumin seed–yes, one-half cup!)

• ½ cup pure ground New Mexican red chile

• Water

• 1 teaspoon cayenne

• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Instructions

Render grease from the bacon; eat a bacon sandwich while the chili cooks. (Good chili takes time.)

Saute the ground beef in bacon grease over medium heat. Add the cominos and then begin adding the red chile until what you are cooking smells like chili. (This is the critical point. If you add all the spices at once, there is no leeway for personal tastes.) Let the mixture cook a bit between additions and don’t feel compelled to use all of the red chile.

Add water in small batches to avoid sticking, and more later for a soupier chili. Slowly add the cayenne powder until smoke curls your eyelashes. Palefaces may find that the red chile alone has enough heat.

Simmer the mixture until the cook can’t resist ladling a bowlful for sampling. Skim the excess fat for dietetic chili, or mix the grease with a small amount of cornmeal for a thicker chili.

Finish with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to individual taste, paprika to darken. Continue simmering until served; continue re-heating until gone. (As with wine, time enobles good chili and exposes bad.)

The result should be something like old time Texas café chili: a rich, red, heavily cominesque concoction with enough liquid to welcome crackers, some chewy chunks of meat thoroughly permeated by the distinctive spices, and an aroma calculated to lure strangers to the kitchen door.

Variation: For cook-off contest chili, drink bad tequila two days before starting the chili; burn mixture frequently; sprinkle occasionally with sand and blood; serve cold to a dozen other drunks and call them “judges”; and keep telling yourself you’re having a great time.

This recipe originally contained beef suet, but that ingredient was omitted after LBJ’s severe heart attack when he was Senate Majority Leader. Remember to skim the fat off the chili. She wrote: “So many requests came in for the recipe that it was easier to give the recipe a name, have it printed on a card and make it available. It has been almost as popular as the government pamphlet on the care and feeding of children.”

Ingredients

• 4 pounds coarsely ground beef

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1 teaspoon oregano

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 6 teaspoons New Mexican red chile powder (or more for heat)

• 2 16-ounce cans tomatoes

• 2 cups hot water

• Salt to taste

Instructions

Combine the beef, onion, and garlic in a skillet and sear until the meat is lightly browned.

Transfer this mixture to a large pot, add the remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for an hour.

When done, transfer the chili to a bowl and place it in the refrigerator. When the fat has congealed on top, remove it with a spoon.

Reheat the chili and serve it as LBJ liked it–without beans and accompanied with a glass of milk and saltine crackers.